Saving electricity - would socket timers be worth it?

jalexa

Kittykat85 wrote: »

Does that make sense?

Yep, makes sense. You cannot do much more.

Earlier you said "I've used 108 units of electricity (I believe it's measured in KWh but I have no key to the electricity meter cupboard so can't check". So who checked? Is the cupboard actually secured with a secure lock or just a latch?

Basically forget timers. Unless the standby item is noticeably warm in standby then its not consuming much. My phone charger is stone cold when not charging. Ditto the TV on standby.

The best thing you can do is monitor your actual electric consumption for trends (upwards). So try to get access to the meter. Also check bills for actual or accurate estimated consumption because the supplier is unlikely to estimate as low as your usgage.

You may be into sufficiently low usage to benefit from an Ebico tariff. Check out on a comparison website.

Kittykat85

jalexa wrote: »

Yep, makes sense. You cannot do much more.

Earlier you said "I've used 108 units of electricity (I believe it's measured in KWh but I have no key to the electricity meter cupboard so can't check". So who checked? Is the cupboard actually secured with a secure lock or just a latch?

Basically forget timers unless. Unless the standby item is noticeably warm in standby then its not consuming much. My phone charger is stone cold when not charging.

The best thing you can do is monitor your actual electric consumption for trends (upwards). So try to get access to the meter. Also check bills for actual or accurate estimated consumption because the supplier is unlikely to estimated as low as your usgage.

You may be into sufficiently low usage to benefit from an Ebico tariff. Check out on a comparison website.

Letting agent read them. I brought a generic key for the gas but I'm going to need to get a key for the cupboard in the stair well where the electricity meter is. I'll ask LA if they'll let me make a copy. After getting stung with a £900 British Gas bill a few years ago I like t send meter readings at leat once every 13 weeks.

HappyMJ

Kittykat85 wrote: »

Letting agent read them. I brought a generic key for the gas but I'm going to need to get a key for the cupboard in the stair well where the electricity meter is. I'll ask LA if they'll let me make a copy. After getting stung with a £900 British Gas bill a few years ago I like t send meter readings at leat once every 13 weeks.

I prefer to read the meter weekly and make a nice chart using the ebico imeasure website so that I know if I am using to much from one week to the next and zero suprises with the bill. http://ebico.imeasure.org.uk

Neil_Jones

The router, the cordless telephone and the fridge are all designed to be left on all the time. Power cycling the router will probably affect the internet speed in the short run.

A better solution to save electricity would be not to leave things in standby when you're not using them, such as your TV, the consoles and the chargers.

Listening to the radio uses next to no power and can be left on all night accidentally or otherwise without it costing the earth.

I don't see what you need a timer for. I think self discipline would be more effective

Ben84

Mobile phone chargers are basically insignificant energy users, many of the new ones use less than 0.1W when no phone is attached. The real budget and environmental issue with mobile phones is the tendency people have to replace them every year.

Edit to mention, if you live in a flat with maybe one or two people, you could be a good candidate for a water meter rather than flat rate billing which tends to cost well over the odds for many people in flats or low occupancy houses.